Ministry of Transport guides against vehicle hackers
- Author:Ella Cai
- Release on:2017-08-08
The Ministry of Transport has issued cyber protection guidelines for internet-connected vehicles to protect them from being hacked.
“Whether we’re turning vehicles into wifi-connected hotspots or equipping them with millions of lines of code to become fully automated, it is important that they are protected against cyber-attacks,” says Transport minister Lord Martin Callanan (pictured), “our key principles give advice on what organisations should do, from the board level down, as well as technical design and development considerations.”
“We need to make sure that the designs of the vehicles in the first place are completely cyber secure so that people can’t break into them, they can’t steal them and more importantly they can’t hack them to potentially cause accidents,” adds Callanan, “the advice would be treat them as you would your computer. Be careful who you give access to, don’t plug in devices such as USB sticks that you don’t know the origin of, be careful what apps you download to it, make sure you have the latest software.”
The Autonomous and Electric Vehicles Bill, aims to create a framework to insure self-driving vehicles. ““We need to introduce a new insurance product that if a vehicle is being driven autonomously then the insurance company would be liable,” says Callanan, “this would be a new emerging form of insurance that would also be a great product for the UK to sell around the world.”
Recent Black Hat hacking conferences in Las Vegas have featured demonstrations and courses on how to hack vehicles.
“Whether we’re turning vehicles into wifi-connected hotspots or equipping them with millions of lines of code to become fully automated, it is important that they are protected against cyber-attacks,” says Transport minister Lord Martin Callanan (pictured), “our key principles give advice on what organisations should do, from the board level down, as well as technical design and development considerations.”
“We need to make sure that the designs of the vehicles in the first place are completely cyber secure so that people can’t break into them, they can’t steal them and more importantly they can’t hack them to potentially cause accidents,” adds Callanan, “the advice would be treat them as you would your computer. Be careful who you give access to, don’t plug in devices such as USB sticks that you don’t know the origin of, be careful what apps you download to it, make sure you have the latest software.”
The Autonomous and Electric Vehicles Bill, aims to create a framework to insure self-driving vehicles. ““We need to introduce a new insurance product that if a vehicle is being driven autonomously then the insurance company would be liable,” says Callanan, “this would be a new emerging form of insurance that would also be a great product for the UK to sell around the world.”
Recent Black Hat hacking conferences in Las Vegas have featured demonstrations and courses on how to hack vehicles.